zanket
About your "bats"...This is how they are descibed as looking sometimes. Let me tell you a story ...
(From a message titled "The Greatest Battle Ever Fought" preached Mar 11, 1962, by William Branham in Jeffersonville, Ind.)
http://www.nathan.co.za/message.asp?sermonum=815
So I had a little girl here one time. The lady may be setting here now; her name was Nellie Sanders. One of the first times I ever seen a devil cast out. (We lived... Now, if I can just get the place in--it'd be just about three blocks up here, beyond the graveyard.) Now, I'd just become a preacher, and I was preaching right here on this corner with a tent meeting. And that little girl was one of the best dancers. She went to high school down here. And her and Lee Horn (and many of you here in town know Lee Horn down here, runs the pool room in there.)--so they, her and Lee Horn, was the best dancers there was in the country. He's Catholic himself; 'course, religion didn't mean nothing to them. So then (Nellie and them), so she was a great dancer and he was too, and they had this here dance called the "black bottom" and "jitterbugs" and all them things; and she was--them two was the best in the country.
One day she staggered in up here (one night) to the meeting. There she fell down at the altar, little Nellie; bless her heart. She just laid there at the altar; she raised up her head, and she cried and the tears run down her cheeks, she said, "Billy..." (She knew me.) She said, "I want to be saved so bad."
I said, "Nellie, you can be saved; Jesus already saved you, girl. You have to accept it now upon the basis of His Word." And she stayed there, and she cried, and she prayed, and she told God she'd never listen to the things of the world again. All at once a lovely, sweet peace come over her soul. She raised up from there shouting and praising God, glorifying God.
And about six or eight months after that, she was coming down Spring Street one night (Now just a young girl, she was just in her teen-age, about eighteen years old.), and she come to me, and she said, "Hope..." (That was my wife, the one that's gone on.) She said, "I wished I looked like Hope and Irene." She said, "You know, they never did get out in the world." Said, "The world puts a mark on you." Said, "I got a rough look." Said, "Now, I quit wearing makeup and stuff, but I look so rough. Even my cast of my face," she said, "I look rough." She said, "They look so innocent and tender." Said, "I wish I'd have never done that."
I said, "Nellie, the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, Honey. Go on, believe it."
Wayne Bledsoe (many of you know him here, a bosom friend of mine years and years), he was a drinker, and be come up here with my brother Edward. And he got drunk down here in the street, and I picked him up, 'cause cops was going to get him. And I brought him up here; and I was a preacher and lived up here at my mama and papa's way 'fore I was married. And I took him, put him in the bed in there; I sleep--slept on the Duofold. There's a big bunch of Branhams, you know (ten of us), and so we had about four rooms, and we had to kinda double up a little. So I had an old Duofold I slept on, and I pulled it out like this and--and put Wayne to bed with me, drunk. Had to pack him in the house and lay him down. And I was laying there, I said, "Wayne, aren't you ashamed of yourself and like that?"
He, "Uh, duh, Billy, don't talk to me like that." You know? [Brother Branham imitates a drunk speaking--Ed.] I put my hand over and I said, "I'm going to pray for you, Wayne. God bless you."
And I'd been saved about, oh, I guess about, maybe a year. And so then all at once a--a cab, slammed the door outside, and somebody knocked on the door hard, "Brother Bill. Brother Bill." [Brother Branham knocks on pulpit--Ed.]
I thought, "My goodness, somebody must be dying." I jumped up to the door, grabbed my old thing there, throwed it around my pajamas like this, and covered Wayne up, and run to the door. It sounded just like a woman. I opened the door, and this young girl standing at the door, she said, "Oh, can I come in?"
I said, "Come in," and I turned the lights on and...
Now, she was just crying like that, and she said, "Oh, Bill--Billy, I'm--I'm--I'm gone, I'm gone."
I said, "What's the matter, Nellie? You got a--got a heart attack?"
She said, "No." She said, "Brother Bill, I was coming down Spring Street." She said, "Honest, Brother Bill, honest, Brother Bill, I didn't mean no harm; I didn't mean no harm."
I said, "What's the matter?" I thought, "What am I going to do with her now?" See? I didn't know what to do. I was just a young fellow, and I thought...
Said, "Oh, Brother Bill," said, "I'm just--I'm just--I'm just all to pieces."
I said, "Now, quieten down, sis. Tell me all about it."
And she said, "Well," she said, "I was coming down the street, and the Redmen's Hall..." (And they used to have Saturday night dances there.) And she said, "I had some stuff; I was going home to make me a dress." And she said, "I heard that music," and she said, "you know," said, "I stopped just a minute," and said, "It kept getting better. So I thought, 'You know, it won't hurt if I stand right here.'"
That's where she made her mistake, stopped for a moment.
She just listened, said, "Well, I'm going to think." Said, "Oh Lord, You know I love You though." said, "You know I love You, Lord, but I can sure remember the time when Lee and I used to win all the--the cups and so forth." Said, "My, I remember that old music used to attract me; it don't now." Oh, oh. Oh, oh, you think it don't; it's already got you right there. That's just as good as he wants right there. See?
How many ever knowed Nellie Sanders? Well, I guess a whole lot of you did. Yeah, sure. So they--there was a--there was said... She said, "Well, do you know what?" said, "Maybe if I walk up on the steps up there," said, "maybe I'll be able to testify to some of them." See, you're right on the devil's ground. Stay out of it. Shun the very appearance of evil.
But she walked up to the top of the steps and stood there a few minutes, and the first thing you know, she was in some boy's arms out on the floor. Then she come to herself, and she was standing there crying and going on, said, "Oh, I'm lost now for good."
I--I thought, "Well, I don't know too much about the Bible, but I believe Jesus said this: 'In My Name they shall cast out devils.'" Now... And Wayne had done sobered up a little bit and was setting there watching it. See? So I said, "Now, devil, I don't know who you are, but I'm telling you now, this is my sister, and you ain't got no business with her, holding her. She didn't mean to do that; she just stopped for a minute." (That's where she made her mistake though.) I said, "But you're going to have to come out of here. You hear me?" And so help me (God will at the judgment bar know), that screen door begin to opening and shutting by itself: pumpity, plumpity, there at the door, ka-plump, ka-plump, ka-plump. I thought... And she said, "Bill, looky there, looky there."
And I said, "Yeah. What is that?"
She said, "I don't know."
I said, "Neither do I." And the door go pumpity, pump, ti-pump, shutting like that, I thought, "What's the matter here? What's the matter?" And I looked again like that, and I said, "Leave her, Satan. In Jesus' Name come out of her." When I said that, it looked like a great big bat, about this long, rose up from behind her, with long hair hanging down out of its wings and off of its feet like that; it's going, "Whrrrrrrr," started right towards me, just as hard as it come. I said, "Oh, Lord God, the Blood of Jesus Christ protect me from that."
And Wayne jumped up in the bed, looked; and here it was like a big shadow, circled around, and went over, and went down behind the bed. Out of the bed went Wayne, in the next room as hard as he could.
So we--I got Nellie and took her home, and come back, and I couldn't... Mom went in there and shook the sheets and everything; there wasn't nothing in that bed. What was it? A devil went out of her. What happened? She stopped for a moment. That's all.
Don't stop at all. God sinks His Word in your heart, just take that Sword and start chopping and cutting. Hallelujah. "I ain't got time to wait for nothing else. I just crossed over; I haven't got time to even settle down."
(From para. 8 of a message titled "Waters of Separation" preached June 6,1955 by William Branham in Macon, Geogia)
http://www.nathan.co.za/message.asp?sermonum=248
- "Many times you see them in different forms. Here recently I seen one coming from a woman, that looked like a bat with great big hairs hanging under its legs, and so forth, its wings come right out, right straight up. They're evil spirits. And many times it's someone looking ever so beautiful on the outside, could only look on the inside and see what that is. We're dominated by spirit".